Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/29—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes
  • H03M13/2906—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes using block codes
  • H03M13/2909—Product codes
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/03—Error detection or forward error correction by redundancy in data representation, i.e. code words containing more digits than the source words
  • H03M13/05—Error detection or forward error correction by redundancy in data representation, i.e. code words containing more digits than the source words using block codes, i.e. a predetermined number of check bits joined to a predetermined number of information bits
  • H03M13/13—Linear codes
  • H03M13/15—Cyclic codes, i.e. cyclic shifts of codewords produce other codewords, e.g. codes defined by a generator polynomial, Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem [BCH] codes
  • H03M13/151—Cyclic codes, i.e. cyclic shifts of codewords produce other codewords, e.g. codes defined by a generator polynomial, Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem [BCH] codes using error location or error correction polynomials
  • H03M13/1515—Reed-Solomon codes
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/29—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes
  • H03M13/2906—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes using block codes
  • H03M13/2927—Decoding strategies
  • H03M13/293—Decoding strategies with erasure setting
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/29—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes
  • H03M13/2957—Turbo codes and decoding
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/37—Decoding methods or techniques, not specific to the particular type of coding provided for in groups H03M13/03 - H03M13/35
  • H03M13/373—Decoding methods or techniques, not specific to the particular type of coding provided for in groups H03M13/03 - H03M13/35 with erasure correction and erasure determination, e.g. for packet loss recovery or setting of erasures for the decoding of Reed-Solomon codes
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03M—CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL
  • H03M13/00—Coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or error correction; Coding theory basic assumptions; Coding bounds; Error probability evaluation methods; Channel models; Simulation or testing of codes
  • H03M13/61—Aspects and characteristics of methods and arrangements for error correction or error detection, not provided for otherwise
  • H03M13/618—Shortening and extension of codes

Definitions

• the present invention relates to data storage, and more particularly, to providing improved product code decoding using combination error and erasure decoding.
• Storage media and transmission media such as magnetic tape, optical storage, or optical fiber transmission, use product codes to encode data, which then must be decoded to read the data from the medium.
• Product codes may also be used in storage-class and flash memories.
• the product code is a critical component of a two-level error correction architecture. Error correction in tape drives is typically based on product codes using a first-level CI code and a second-level C2 code, a process which is well known in the art.
• Product codewords may be represented as two-dimensional arrays where rows of the array comprise codewords from a row code (CI code) and columns of the array consist of codewords from a column code (C2 code).
• Each data set is encoded using interleaved sets of codewords that are organized into an ECC- encoded matrix of size M bytes x N bytes (MxN) and then written to tape as shown in FIG. 1, according to the prior art.
• the first level of encoding utilizes the matrix rows 102.
• the decoder for the product code is designed to mitigate very long error events, such as drop-outs and sync slips.
• the CI decoder which is also used during read- while- write, performs error decoding
• the C2 decoder performs erasure decoding.
• the drawback of this particular decoding strategy is that it does not perform well in the presence of short error events. Furthermore, this strategy does not allow for improved error rate performance using iterative decoding.
• a system for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to receive captured data, generate erasure flags for the captured data and provide the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, set a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively perform, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or
• a method for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes receiving captured data, generating erasure flags for the captured data and providing the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, setting a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively performing, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• a computer program product for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable/executable by a processor to receive captured data, generate erasure flags for the captured data and provide the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, set a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively perform, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• FIG. 1 shows a data set matrix or array, according to the prior art.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a network storage system, according to one embodiment.
• FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified tape drive of a tape-based data storage system, according to one embodiment.
• FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to one embodiment.
• FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment.
• FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method according to yet another embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
• a decoding strategy for product codes that is based on both error and erasure decoding is used in order to achieve improved error rate performance in the presence of short and long error events.
• a system for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to receive captured data, generate erasure flags for the captured data and provide the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, set a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively perform, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• a method for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes receiving captured data, generating erasure flags for the captured data and providing the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, setting a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively performing, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• a computer program product for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable/executable by a processor to receive captured data, generate erasure flags for the captured data and provide the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, set a stop parameter to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively perform, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as "logic,” “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
• the computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium.
• a computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
• a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
• a computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof, such as an electrical connection having one or more wires, an optical fiber, etc.
• a computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
• Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
• Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages.
• the program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a standalone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.
• the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
• LAN local area network
• WAN wide area network
• Internet Service Provider for example, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, EarthLink, MSN, GTE, etc.
• These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• the computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s).
• the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially
• FIG. 2 a schematic of a network storage system 10 is shown according to one embodiment.
• This network storage system 10 is only one example of a suitable storage system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of embodiments of the invention described herein. Regardless, network storage system 10 is capable of being implemented and/or performing any of the functionality set forth hereinabove.
• a computer system/server 12 which is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations.
• Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with computer system/server 12 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
• Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context of computer system- executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system.
• program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
• Computer system/server 12 may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network.
• program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.
• computer system/server 12 in the network storage system 10 is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing device.
• the computer system 12 may be used in conjunction with a tape drive system.
• the components of computer system/server 12 may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 16, a system memory 28, and a bus 18 that couples various system components including system memory 28 to processor 16.
• Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.
• bus architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.
• ISA Industry Standard Architecture
• MCA Micro Channel Architecture
• EISA Enhanced ISA
• VESA Video Electronics Standards Association
• PCI Peripheral Component Interconnects
• Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 12, and it includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.
• System memory 28 may include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cache memory 32.
• Computer system/server 12 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media.
• storage system 34 may be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non- volatile magnetic media - not shown and typically called a "hard disk,” which may be operated in a HDD.
• a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a "floppy disk")
• an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non- volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media
• each may be connected to bus 18 by one or more data media interfaces.
• memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments described herein.
• Program/utility 40 having a set (at least one) of program modules 42, may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment.
• Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.
• Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more external devices 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 24, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 12; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 may communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 via bus 18.
• LAN local area network
• WAN wide area network
• public network e.g., the Internet
• FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified tape drive 100 of a tape-based data storage system, which may be employed according to various embodiments. While one specific implementation of a tape drive is shown in FIG. 3, it should be noted that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in the context of any type of tape drive system.
• a tape supply cartridge 120 and a take-up reel 121 are provided to support a tape 122.
• One or more of the reels may form part of a removable cassette and are not necessarily part of the tape drive 100.
• the tape drive 100 may further include drive motor(s) to drive the tape supply cartridge 120 and the take-up reel 121 to move the tape 122 over a tape head 126 of any type.
• the controller 128 typically comprises a servo channel 134 and data channel 136 which includes data flow processing. It controls reel motion (not shown in FIG. 3) and head functions, such as track following, writing, reading, etc.
• the cable 130 may include read/write circuits to transmit data to the head 126 to be recorded on the tape 122 and to receive data read by the head 126 from the tape 122.
• An actuator 132 moves the head 126 to a set of tracks on the tape 122 in order to perform a write or a read operation.
• the tape drive 100 may comprise a data buffer 138 which is accessible by the tape drive 100 and the controller 128.
• This data buffer 138 may be organized as a ring buffer and may be split into one or more portions, with one portion being a reserved data buffer 140, which may also be organized into a ring buffer, to be used for storage of partial data sets during reading operations from the tape 122.
• An interface may also be provided for communication between the tape drive 100 and a host (integral or external) to send and receive the data and for controlling the operation of the tape drive 100 and communicating the status of the tape drive 100 to the host, as would be understood by one of skill in the art.
• a decoding strategy for product codes that is based on both error and erasure decoding is used in order to achieve better error rate performance than conventional techniques when encountering both short and long error events, as are commonly experienced in actual tape decoding.
• innovative aspects of this decoding strategy include: conditional branching to perform error or erasure decoding, a stopping mechanism based on a parameter (referred to herein as E2) which is introduced to guarantee that an iterative decoding algorithm for decoding product codes will stop after a fixed number of iterations, and initial erasure flagging for C2 decoding before decoding of the product code begins.
• One conventional approach to stop the decoding algorithm is to allow a predetermined or fixed number of iterations to occur, and then to stop decoding. However, this approach may be used in unison with the use of parameter E2, thereby providing even better performance and limiting decoding latency.
• techniques described herein may be used in a non- iterative decoding mode (single iteration) where CI decoding is followed by C2 decoding, or in an iterative-decoding mode where several iterations of C1/C2 decoding are performed. These techniques may also be used on-the-fly or during an error recovery procedure (ERP).
• ERP error recovery procedure
• RS Reed-Solomon
• Nl and N2 are the block length which is equal to the number of bytes in each codeword in the array
• Kl and K2 are the message length which equals the number of data bytes in each codeword
• dl and d2 are the distance or minimum distance which equals N-K+l , where d-1 erasures may be corrected by the RS code.
• iterative decoding may be used, with the CI - and C2-decoders operating as in Strategy A. If successful, the decoding strategy terminates after CI -decoding; otherwise, the C2-decoder is informed about which rows have been corrected and which rows have CI decoding failures therein. The C2-decoder then performs error decoding on the erroneous subarray and applies a second pass of C1/C2 decoding.
• the CI failure rate is a good measure for the byte error rate at the C2-decoder input. In this case, erasure decoding alone is substantially better than error decoding alone. In another scenario where random errors are encountered along the CI codewords, the CI failure rate is a very pessimistic measure for the byte error rate at the C2-decoder input, and error decoding alone is substantially better than erasure decoding alone. An analysis of captured data produced from Strategy A and B, which had failed in C2 erasure decoding, showed that C2 error decoding was able to correct the errors in these cases.
• two-pass iterative decoding (a specific implementation of Strategy B) is capable of handling a CI error rate that is approximately 100 times higher than the CI error rate that may be handled by Strategy A.
• the error-only mode of Strategy B is capable of handling 15 times larger C 1 -failure rates than Strategy A.
• strategy B utilizes two fully erroneous (erased) rows in error/erasure mode, 50 times larger CI -failure rates may be handled than compared to Strategy A.
• FIG. 4 a flowchart of a method 400 for combination error-and-erasure decoding for product codes is shown according to one embodiment.
• the method 400 may be performed in accordance with the present invention in any of the environments depicted in FIGS. 1-3, among others, in various embodiments. Of course, more or less operations than those specifically described in FIG. 4 may be included in method 400, as would be understood by one of skill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.
• the method 400 may be used to decode data from a tape medium, which may be any suitable magnetic data storage tape known in the art.
• each of the steps of the method 400 may be performed by any suitable component of the operating environment.
• the method 400 may be partially or entirely performed by a tape drive, an optical drive, a processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc., which may be embedded in and/or operate within a system, an apparatus, a drive, a storage device, etc., and which may have logic embedded with and/or accessible to the processor.
• a tape drive such as a tape drive, an optical drive, a processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.
• CPU central processing unit
• ASIC application specific integrated circuit
• FPGA field programmable gate array
• method 400 may initiate with operation 402, where captured data is received.
• the data may be captured from any suitable storage medium, such as a magnetic tape, an optical drive, an optical communication fiber, etc.
• Captured data is data which is received through one or more data channels which has previously been encoded with a product code (C1/C2) for storage and/or transmission thereof.
• C1/C2 product code
• erasure flags which indicate rows with unreliable and/or missing data, are generated for the captured data and provided to a C2 decoder.
• Each erasure flag corresponds to a portion of the captured data which is to be treated as erased during C2 erasure decoding (as opposed to being left alone for error decoding) due to an observed, calculated, or anticipated condition which will be better recovered using erasure decoding, such as an error burst condition (long burst of errors).
• erasure flags may be generated based on any of the following conditions which are indicative of a long error burst: a header for a codeword interleave (such as a CWI- 4 that includes four interleaved codewords) is not detected or missing, a phase-locked loop (PLL) cycle slip is detected, a number of detected contiguous illegal modulation codewords within a CWI-4 (or CI codeword) at an output of the modulation decoder exceeds a predetermined threshold amount (such as ten 17-bit modulation codewords), a number of bits between a Forward Sync pattern (such as a predetermined 17-bit pattern) and a Re-Sync pattern (such as a predetermined 33-bit pattern) does not equal a size of a header and four codeword interleaves (e.g., 7776 bits), and/or a number of bits between a Re- Sync pattern and a Reverse Sync pattern does not equal a size of a header
• a PLL cycle slip may be detected according to any technique known in art, for instance, by applying the method in U.S. Patent No. 7,003,065.
• the threshold amount may be any suitable number that depends on the correction capability of the CI code, the interleaving factor, and the length of the modulation codewords. For instance, for the considered CWI-4s and a length- 17 modulation code, 10 contiguous illegal modulation codewords are indicative of a long error event that cannot be corrected by the CI code.
• any technique known in the art may be used to try to detect a CWI-4 header.
• the 7776 bits is calculated based on counting the number of bits between two sync patterns, which amounts to 12 Bytes for the header plus 4 ⁇ 240 Bytes for the CWI-4, that is 7776 bits. For other layouts having different sized headers and/or codeword interleaves, this 7776 bits may be adjusted to reflect the other data format.
• the stop parameter may then be used for determining when to stop the method 400 (either due to decoding being successful or unsuccessful).
• C 1 error decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where the rows with the read-back CI codewords are kept unchanged (not erased or otherwise altered, even though it is indicated that the decision is incorrect by an erasure flag generated in 404 or 420).
• C 1 error decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where the rows with the read-back CI codewords are kept unchanged (not erased or otherwise altered, even though it is indicated that the decision is incorrect by an erasure flag generated in 404 or 420).
• Fl CI failures
• operation 412 it is determined whether the number of CI failures (Fl) is greater than two times a C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) minus a C2 decoding margin (m 2 ), e.g., Fl > 2t 2 - m 2 . If so, method 400 continues to operation 420; otherwise, method 400 continues to operation 418.
• the C2 decoding margin may be the same or different depending on whether the margin is being used for error or erasure decoding.
• the C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) represents a number of C2 errors which are correctable using the product codes in the particular captured data, and may be an integer having a value greater than zero, such as 1 , 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, etc., depending on the parameters of the selected RS code for C2.
• the C2 decoding margin (m 2 ) is a value which may be automatically set or selected by an administrator or other user which provides a margin between the C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) and a "safer" approximation of how many errors the C2 decoder is capable of correcting.
• the margin may be associated only with C2 erasure decoding, or with C2 error-and-erasure decoding.
• C2 erasure decoding is performed on the captured data (either after having CI decoding performed thereon or in native captured form without having any CI decoding thereof).
• C2 erasure decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where CI failures are erased.
• C2 error decoding is performed on the captured data (either after having CI decoding performed thereon or in native captured form without having any CI decoding thereof).
• C2 error decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where CI failures are kept unchanged (not erased or otherwise altered, even though it is indicated that the decision is incorrect).
• C2 decoding is performed after CI decoding, even in a first iteration (or in a non- iterative process), CI failures (unless none are detected) will exist.
• the decoder generates erasure flags for those columns on which a C2 decoding failure occurs.
• method 400 continues to operation 428 and stops because decoding has been unsuccessful and the errors are unrecoverable/uncorrectable; otherwise, method 400 continues to operation 430 where the stop parameter (E2) is set to the number of C2 failures (F2). In this way, it is ensured that iterations will only converge toward less C2 errors, not diverge and cause more C2 errors and/or become stuck in a looping situation that does not ever resolve itself.
• the stop parameter (E2) is less than or equal to two times a CI error correction capability (ti) minus a CI decoding margin (mi), e.g., E2 ⁇ 2ti - mi .
• the CI decoding margin may be the same or different depending on whether the margin is being used for error or erasure decoding.
• method 400 continues to operation 434 where CI erasure decoding is performed on the captured data using the erasure flags from operation 420; otherwise, method 400 continues to operation 408 to perform CI error decoding again.
• CI erasure decoding includes error-and- erasure decoding where C2 failures are treated as erased data. In method 400 when C2 decoding is performed after initial CI decoding, even in a first iteration (or in a non-iterative process), C2 failures (unless none are detected) will exist and will be treated as erased data.
• the CI error correction capability (ti) represents a number of CI errors which are correctable using the product codes in the particular captured data, and may be an integer having a value greater than zero, such as 1 , 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, etc., depending on the parameters of the selected RS code for CI .
• the CI decoding margin (mi) is a value which may be automatically set or selected by an administrator or other user which provides a margin between the CI error correction capability (ti) and a "safer" approximation of how many errors the CI decoder is capable of correcting. In one embodiment, the margin may be associated only with CI erasure decoding, or with CI error-and-erasure decoding.
• Method 400 continues until one of the stopping points in operations 416, 424, and/or 428 are arrived at.
• the stop parameter E2 is designed to ensure that method 400 will not be ensnared in an endless loop, and will definitely arrive at one of the stopping points in operations 416, 424, and/or 428 within a finite number of iterations.
• the method 400 may be performed by a system.
• the system may be configured for combination error- and- erasure decoding for product codes, and the system may comprise a processor (such as a CPU, ASIC, FPGA, IC, etc.) and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor.
• the logic may be hardware, software, or some combination thereof, and may be configured to execute one or more operations of method 400, and may be configured to perform additional functions not specifically described herein, in various approaches.
• a computer program product may be designed for combination error- and-erasure decoding for product codes, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith.
• the program code may be readable and/or executable by a device, such as a tape drive, processor, etc., to execute one or more operations of method 400, and may be configured to perform additional functions not specifically described herein, in various approaches.
• FIG. 5 a flowchart of a method 500 for combination error-and-erasure decoding for product codes is shown according to one embodiment.
• the method 500 may be performed in accordance with the present invention in any of the environments depicted in FIGS. 1-3, among others, in various embodiments. Of course, more or less operations than those specifically described in FIG. 5 may be included in method 500, as would be understood by one of skill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.
• the method 500 may be used to decode data from a tape medium, which may be any suitable magnetic data storage tape known in the art.
• Each of the steps of the method 500 may be performed by any suitable component of the operating environment.
• the method 500 may be partially or entirely performed by a tape drive, an optical drive, a processor, such as a CPU, an ASIC, a FPGA, etc., which may be embedded in and/or operate within a system, an apparatus, a drive, a storage device, etc., and which may have logic embedded with and/or accessible to the processor.
• a tape drive such as a tape drive, an optical drive, a processor, such as a CPU, an ASIC, a FPGA, etc., which may be embedded in and/or operate within a system, an apparatus, a drive, a storage device, etc., and which may have logic embedded with and/or accessible to the processor.
• method 500 may initiate with operation 502, where captured data is received.
• the data may be captured from any suitable storage medium, such as a magnetic tape, an optical drive, an optical communication fiber, etc.
• Captured data is data which is received through one or more data channels which has previously been encoded with a product code (C1/C2) for storage and/or transmission thereof.
• C1/C2 product code
• erasure flags which indicate rows with unreliable and/or missing data, are generated for the captured data and provided to a C2 decoder.
• Each erasure flag corresponds to a portion of the captured data which is to be treated as erased during erasure decoding (as opposed to being left alone for error decoding) due to an observed or anticipated condition which will be better recovered using erasure decoding, such as an error burst condition (long burst of errors).
• erasure flags may be generated based on any of the following conditions which are indicative of a long error burst: a header for a codeword interleave (such as a CWI- 4 that includes four interleaved codewords) is not detected or missing, a PLL cycle slip is detected, a number of detected contiguous illegal modulation codewords within a CWI-4 (or CI codeword) at an output of the modulation decoder exceeds a predetermined threshold amount, a number of bits between a Forward Sync pattern and a Re-Sync pattern does not equal a size of a header and four codeword interleaves (e.g., 7776 bits), and/or a number of bits between a Re-Sync pattern and a Reverse Sync pattern does not equal a size of a header and four codeword interleaves (e.g., 7776 bits).
• a header for a codeword interleave such as a CWI- 4 that includes four interleaved codewords
• a PLL cycle slip may be detected according to any technique known in art.
• any technique known in the art may be used to try to detect a CWI-4 header.
• the 7776 bits is calculated based on counting the number of bits between two sync patterns, which amounts to 12 Bytes for the header plus 4 ⁇ 240 Bytes for the CWI-4, that is 7776 bits. For other layouts having different sized headers and/or codeword interleaves, this 7776 bits may be adjusted to reflect the other data format.
• the stop parameter may then be used for determining when to stop the method 500 (either due to decoding being successful or unsuccessful).
• C 1 error decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where the rows with the read-back CI codewords are kept unchanged (not erased or otherwise altered, even though it is indicated that the decision is incorrect by an erasure flag).
• Fl CI failures
• operation 512 it is determined whether the number of CI failures (Fl) is greater than two times a C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) minus a C2 decoding margin (m 2 ), e.g., Fl > 2t 2 - m 2 . If so, method 500 continues to operation 516; otherwise, method 500 continues to operation 514.
• Fl number of CI failures
• the C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) represents a number of C2 errors which are correctable using the product codes in the particular captured data, and may be an integer having a value greater than zero, such as 1 , 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, etc., depending on the parameters of the selected RS code for C2.
• the C2 decoding margin (m 2 ) is a value which may be automatically set or selected by an administrator or other user which provides a margin between the C2 error correction capability (t 2 ) and a "safer" approximation of how many errors the C2 decoder is capable of correcting.
• the margin may be associated only with C2 erasure decoding, or with C2 error-and-erasure decoding.
• C2 erasure decoding is performed on the captured data (either after having CI decoding performed thereon or in native captured form without having any CI decoding thereof).
• C2 erasure decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where CI failures are erased.
• C2 error decoding is performed on the captured data (either after having CI decoding performed thereon or in native captured form without having any CI decoding thereof).
• C2 error decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where CI failures are kept unchanged (not erased or otherwise altered, even though it is indicated that the decision is incorrect).
• C2 decoding is performed after CI decoding, even in a first iteration (or in a non- iterative process), CI failures (unless none are detected) will exist.
• the decoder generates erasure flags for those columns on which a C2 decoding failure occurs.
• F2 a number of C2 failures
• operation 524 it is determined whether the number of C2 failures (F2) is greater than or equal to the stop parameter (E2), e.g., F2 > E2. If so, method 500 continues to operation 526 and stops because decoding has been unsuccessful and the errors are unrecoverable/uncorrectable; otherwise, method 500 continues to operation 528 where the stop parameter (E2) is set to the number of C2 failures (F2). In this way, it is ensured that iterations will only converge toward less C2 errors, not diverge and cause more C2 errors and/or become stuck in a looping situation that does not ever resolve itself.
• the stop parameter (E2) is set to the number of C2 failures (F2).
• CI erasure decoding includes error-and-erasure decoding where C2 failures are erased. In method 500 when C2 decoding is performed after initial CI decoding, even in a first iteration (or in a non- iterative process), C2 failures (unless none are detected) will exist and will be treated as erased data.
• the CI error correction capability (ti) represents a number of CI errors which are correctable using the product codes in the particular captured data, and may be an integer having a value greater than zero, such as 1 , 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, etc., depending on the parameters of the selected RS code for CI .
• the CI decoding margin (mi) is a value which may be automatically set or selected by an administrator or other user which provides a margin between the CI error correction capability (ti) and a "safer" approximation of how many errors the CI decoder is capable of correcting. In one embodiment, the margin may be associated only with CI erasure decoding, or with CI error-and-erasure decoding.
• Method 500 continues until one of the stopping points in operations 518, 522, and/or 526 are arrived at.
• the stop parameter E2 is designed to ensure that method 500 will not be ensnared in an endless loop, and will definitely arrive at one of the stopping points in operations 518, 522, and/or 526 within a finite number of iterations.
• it may be determined whether all rows and columns of the decoded data (product codeword) are legal CI codewords (rows) and legal C2 codewords (columns). When a product codeword is legal (allowed), the decoding is successful; otherwise the decoding is unsuccessful (decoding failure).
• the method 500 may be performed by a system.
• the system may be configured for combination error- and- erasure decoding for product codes, and the system may comprise a processor (such as a CPU, ASIC, FPGA, IC, etc.) and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor.
• the logic may be hardware, software, or some combination thereof, and may be configured to execute one or more operations of method 500, and may be configured to perform additional functions not specifically described herein, in various approaches.
• a computer program product may be designed for combination error- and-erasure decoding for product codes, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith.
• the program code may be readable and/or executable by a device, such as a tape drive, processor, etc., to execute one or more operations of method 500, and may be configured to perform additional functions not specifically described herein, in various approaches.
• U.S. Patent No. 8,046,660 does not disclose a specific decoding schedule, but instead is limited to standard iterative error-and-erasure decoding of product codes. In particular, it does not teach decoding schedules using error-and-erasure decoding, which are guaranteed to complete within a finite number of iterations. Moreover, U.S. Patent No. 8,046,660 does not consider initial erasure flagging for the C2 decoder, which is based on channel side-information.
• FIG. 6 a flowchart of a method 600 for combination error-and-erasure decoding for product codes is shown according to one embodiment.
• the method 600 may be performed in accordance with the present invention in any of the environments depicted in FIGS. 1-3, among others, in various embodiments. Of course, more or less operations than those specifically described in FIG. 6 may be included in method 600, as would be understood by one of skill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.
• the method 600 may be used to decode data from a tape medium, which may be any suitable magnetic data storage tape known in the art.
• each of the steps of the method 600 may be performed by any suitable component of the operating environment.
• the method 600 may be partially or entirely performed by a tape drive, an optical drive, a processor, such as a CPU, an ASIC, a FPGA, etc., which may be embedded in and/or operate within a system, an apparatus, a drive, a storage device, etc., and which may have logic embedded with and/or accessible to the processor.
• method 600 may initiate with operation 602, where captured data is received. Then, in operation 604, erasure flags for the captured data are generated and provided to a C2 decoder. Next, in operation 606, a stop parameter is set to be equal to a length of CI codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data. Finally, in operation 608, in an iterative process, error or erasure CI decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding are selectively performed until decoding is successful or unsuccessful.
• each erasure flag may correspond to a portion of the captured data which is to be treated as erased during erasure decoding due to an observed or calculated condition.
• These observed or calculated conditions may include any conditions that may be capable of indicating that a burst of errors has occurred in the captured data.
• the observed or calculated condition may include at least one of: a header for a codeword interleave not being detected, detection of a PLL cycle slip, a number of detected contiguous illegal modulation codewords within a codeword interleave or CI codeword at an output of a modulation decoder exceeding a predetermined threshold amount, a number of bits between a Forward Sync pattern and a Re-Sync pattern not being equal to a size of a header and four codeword interleaves, and/ a number of bits between a Re-Sync pattern and a Reverse Sync pattern not being equal to a size of a header and four codeword interleaves.
• the iterative process may comprise: performing CI error decoding on the captured data in a first iteration and when the stop parameter is less than or equal to two times a CI error correction capability minus a CI decoding margin, otherwise performing CI erasure decoding on the captured data; determining that decoding is successful when a number of CI failures is equal to zero and the stop parameter equals zero after performing C 1 decoding; performing C2 error decoding on the captured data after performing C 1 decoding when the number of C 1 failures is greater than two times a C2 error correction capability minus a C2 decoding margin; performing C2 erasure decoding on the captured data after performing CI decoding when the stop parameter does not equal zero or the number of C 1 failures is less than or equal to two times the C2 error correction capability minus the C2 decoding margin and greater than zero; determining that decoding is successful after performing C2 decoding when both a number of C2 failures and a number of C 1 failures are equal to zero
• the iterative process may comprise: performing CI error decoding on the captured data in a first iteration and when the stop parameter is less than or equal to two times a C 1 error correction capability minus a CI decoding margin, otherwise performing CI erasure decoding on the captured data; stopping decoding when a number of CI failures is equal to zero and perform codeword check; performing C2 error decoding on the captured data after performing CI decoding when the number of CI failures is greater than two times a C2 error correction capability minus a C2 decoding margin, otherwise performing C2 erasure decoding on the captured data after performing CI decoding; stopping decoding after performing C2 decoding when a number of C2 failures is equal to zero; and determining that decoding is unsuccessful after performing C2 decoding when a number of C2 failures is greater than or equal to the stop parameter, otherwise setting the stop parameter equal to the number of C2 failures.
• the codeword check may comprise determining that every CI codeword is legal and every C
• the CI error correction capability may represent a number of CI errors which are correctable using product codes in the captured data
• the C2 error correction capability may represent a number of C2 errors which are correctable using product codes in the captured data
• each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s).
• the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

Landscapes

• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Probability & Statistics with Applications (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Mathematical Physics (AREA)
• Algebra (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Pure & Applied Mathematics (AREA)
• Error Detection And Correction (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=52449691

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (13)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (18)

• 2013
  • 2013-08-07 US US13/961,839 patent/US9166627B2/en active Active
• 2014
  • 2014-07-28 GB GB1603366.4A patent/GB2533501B/en active Active
  • 2014-07-28 CN CN201480044152.XA patent/CN105453439B/zh active Active
  • 2014-07-28 WO PCT/CN2014/083149 patent/WO2015018285A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2014-07-28 JP JP2016532221A patent/JP6415557B2/ja active Active
  • 2014-07-28 DE DE112014002870.3T patent/DE112014002870B4/de active Active
• 2015
  • 2015-09-10 US US14/850,883 patent/US9455749B2/en active Active

Patent Citations (4)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events